Just roll with it

This was to be the year I made and canned ketchup. It was not to be. I planted tomatoes that should have grown to the size of my fist, Beefsteaks, for slicing and canning. Canning them is fine, but it does require a longer simmer time to remove excess water. No biggie. It was not to be. The seed pack said Beefsteak but the seeds said, "we're cherry tomatoes!" 

Drop back two and punt. 

I've been harvesting the little 'maters and popping them in the freezer until I had enough to do something with. After a Saturday afternoon trip to the canning jar pantry, I decided I'd better make more pizza sauce. 

A few days ago I pulled the bags of frozen tomatoes out, plopped them in a large, deep pot, and cooked them down. Once they'd all gone to mush, I ran the mix through a food mill, put the sauce back into the pot, and let it simmer for several hours until it had reduced and thickened. From there, I made pizza sauce according to the recipe in the Ball Book. I ended up with seventeen jars (and seventeen seals) or enough for about the next year and a half. 

The tomatoes are still producing, and I'll have enough for another batch of pizza sauce. It wasn't the plan for 2023 but in the long run, it works just fine. I'll just have to make more pizzas. 

Sometimes you have to go with the flow.

The Lady of The Hideaway

KC Kendricks, The Hideaway, pizza sauce, tomatoes, gardening, home canning, rural living, country lifestyle, a writer's life, plans change

This was a lot of work - pizza sauce

Earlier in the season I secretly despaired about the Roma tomatoes. The first tomatoes on each plant developed blossom end rot. The cure is to add calcium to the soil, but honestly, I'd not had great success with that. This year, I ignored the recommended amounts and added a generous handful of garden lime pellets to each bucket and watered it in. This time, it worked. I've had a good harvest of Roma tomatoes. 

The plan was to can them as diced, or crushed, tomatoes to add to recipes. I did that. The plants are still producing and I decided to make a batch of pizza sauce according to the recipe in the Ball Book.  

The recipe calls for thirteen cups of tomato puree and states it will yield about seven pints. A pint is too much for a single pizza for two people and a dog, so I canned the sauce in half-pints. 

The project went well, but it was very labor intensive. I had to core and slice the tomatoes, then cook them down to a liquid state. Then I ran everything through a food mill to remove the skins and seeds. After that, the result needed to simmer until it thickened and that took hours. 

The actual processing required two canner runs. Water bath canning was called for, so no stacking in the canner. Each batch had to process for thirty-five minutes. I'm delighted with the end result. Every jar sealed so there was no pizza tonight, I'm sorry to say. 

It's a good feeling to have home-grown truly organic food on the pantry shelf. The tomato plants are still bearing so I need to go through the Ball Book and decide on what to make next. If I can't decide, I'll simply process plain sauce. It won't go to waste, that's for sure. 

I'm feeling really good about my little garden this year. Yes, it's a bit of work, but it's work that will benefit us for months to come. To our way of thinking, that's a good thing.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, home processed food, gardening, rural lifestyle, country living, tomatoes, pizza sauce, simple country pleasures, blossom end rot